StarCrossed
by fancyleatherchairs
Summary: When the Doctor finds a mysterious alien baby on a far-off planet, he enlists the help of the Torchwood team to discover its origins. Little does he know it will change the universe forever. Implied 10th Doctor/Rose. Takes place just after DW season 2 and between seasons 1 and 2 of Torchwood.
1. Chapter 1

When the lonely god landed on Thor I, he never expected what he would find there. The planet was one of many failed attempts by an ancient race to transplant their entire population from one planet to another. Thor I had once been habitable, covered in lush forests and inhabited by many exotic animals. An earthquake had struck without warning, and with enough force to shift the planet off its axis. The temperature on Thor I quickly dropped and the planet went into a permanent ice age, killing everything that lived on its surface. The entire planet was a sheet of ice, its forests preserved by a glittering glaze over the tree trunks. The Doctor found the place both beautiful and calming, as had his previous self. He opened his mouth to tell Rose this as he navigated the TARDIS safely through the planets atmosphere but stopped quickly, remembering.

_She's gone. She's gone and you're never going to see her again. _

The Doctor swallowed. He didn't understand; so many other companions had come and gone over the years, so why did this one trouble him so much? He felt he was dying of loneliness, stranded across space and time in his little blue box, and yet he couldn't bear the thought of finding a new companion. No one could replace Rose. No one.

The TARDIS shuddered to a halt, startling the Doctor from his musings. He sighed, and put on a pair of sunglasses to protect from snow blindness. Then, he stepped outside into the tundra.

The Doctor trod the familiar path across the empty expanse of white to his favorite spot on the planet. At the center of the sparkling ice forest that took up half the planet was a tree taller and older than all the rest. With branches that stuck out at all the right angles, the tree was a breeze to climb. The Doctor scaled the tree with an ease made from years of climbing and jumping over things, coming to rest on a nook between the trunk and a thick branch that was just the right size for sitting. From his perch, he could see across nearly the entire ice forest, his view ending where the trees began to thin. Finally feeling somewhat at ease, the Doctor leaned back and closed his eyes…

**###**

He woke suddenly. Narrowing his eyes against the glare of the sinking sun, the Doctor tried to place the feeling of unease that had shocked him from his nap. Unsettled, he carefully made his way down to the base of the tree, thinking it was time to leave Thor I behind. As he hopped down to the ground, he caught sight of something that made him loose his footing on the slick ice and fall flat on his back. The Doctor sat up, rubbing his tailbone, and stared in shock at the thing lying buried in the snow next to him.

It was a baby, lying wrapped in a blanket and cocooned in the glittering snow. It had blue eyes that bordered on electric, and a shock of white hair that made the snow look like a dirty napkin in comparison. The Doctor stared in horrified wonder at the small, defenseless thing, which seemed to be unbothered by a cold that would have killed most life forms if they weren't properly protected from it. Not only did the child appear unharmed, it stared at the Doctor with a disturbing intelligence in its vivid blue eyes. The Doctor could see no footprints surrounding the tree but his own, and he knew the baby hadn't been there when he first arrived, so he had no idea how or when it had gotten there. The only explanation was that the child was alien, but he couldn't think as to what species. There was no race that he knew of that could survive unprotected in sub-zero temperatures and had white hair and blue eyes, so he reasoned it must be a shape-changer.

The Doctor sighed and cast the baby another look. It stared back at him, with eyes that seemed to bore into his soul. He shuddered. As much as he dreaded what would happen if he took the baby with him, he knew he couldn't leave it to die. As he scooped the child up and into his arms, the Doctor thought he felt it sigh against his chest. Shaking off the chills that ran down his spine, he walked out of the ice forest of Thor I and back to the TARDIS.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor sat at the control panel of the TARDIS and stared at the little bundle on the bench across from him. The little bundle stared back. The Doctor looked away and put his head in his hands. He could feel those blue eyes burning into the back of his neck, and he squeezed his eyes shut. _Maybe if I give her a name, she won't seem so frightening. _For the child was, indeed, a female. The Doctor had discovered her gender when he dressed her in fresh clothes and wrapped her in a blanket, for her skin was abnormally cold to the touch.

The Doctor took his head out of his hands and looked the baby in the eyes. As always, the baby stared back. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, but he ignored it.

"Alice," he said. "Your name is Alice."

Alice's face lit up and she grinned a wide, toothless grin that made her eyes sparkle. If not for the white hair and odd eyes, she would have looked like a normal child. The Doctor bit the inside of his cheek as he looked at her. For better or for worse, there was no turning back now. He had to find out what the child was and where she belonged in the universe.


	3. Chapter 3

_Adrift upon a sea of time, the lonely god wanders from shore to distant shore, upholding the laws of the stars above. The trickster, the riddler, the keeper of the balance, he of the many faces who finds life in death and who fears no evil; he who walks through doors._

After five years of caring for Alice, the Doctor was positive she was an alien. While her growth rate was slower than that of a healthy human child, she possessed an acute awareness of the Doctor's every thought and feeling. He was beginning to think that she could do more than simply sense his emotions; the Doctor suspected that Alice could hear his thoughts.

Something that nettled at the Doctor throughout his jaunts through space was that Alice could not or would not talk. At the rate that her intelligence was developing, she was definitely capable of understanding and mimicking his speech. She had started teething after the third month of being with him, and had a full set of teeth within a week. And yet, whenever he tried to get her to talk, she just stared at him with her haunting blue eyes. Her sole form of communication was through ambiguous sentences that she scribbled in tiny handwriting on bits of notebook paper. These were often accompanied by stunningly detailed sketches of various alien creatures that she found in books stolen from the TARDIS's library. These and her musings unnerved the Doctor. Both her drawings and writings conveyed wisdom and a world sick, bitter attitude that was impossible in one so young.

**###**

She first spoke when she was (the Doctor estimated, seeing as he didn't know her exact age,) six years old. The TARDIS was orbiting a star going into supernova. As the Doctor stood, staring out the open doors at the light, he was struggling and failing to keep his thoughts from Rose. As the exploding star grew brighter and brighter, the Doctor was remembering the last time he saw Rose, and the words that she would never hear.

"You love her, don't you?"

The Doctor gasped and turned around.

"Rose?"

"Doctor…"

The Doctor frowned, realizing that the voice sounded nothing like Rose's. It was lower and had a hard edge to it. The Doctor's eyes widened.

"_Alice?"_

"Yes Doctor?"

"But…you're talking. Why are you talking?"

"Because my question was too personal to write down."

"So you could talk this whole time?"

"Of course. From your thoughts, I gathered you already suspected as much."

"So you can hear my thoughts?"

"_Your _thoughts, yes. I don't know if it works the same way with all species, or just with you, seeing as you're alien."

"So you know."  
>"Well, obviously. I mean, what human flies through time and space in a blue box? And anyway, I can hear your heartbeats. Definitely alien."<p>

The Doctor bit his lip. Alice knew he was an alien, but did she know her own species? And what other abilities did she have?

"Alice, I'm a Time Lord. The last Time Lord. You know that, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Do you know…what you are?"

"Well, yes. I'm human."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows.

"That's impossible."

Alice cocked her head to one side.

"Not at all. I'm completely human."

"You can't be. Trust me, I've traveled with humans. They don't have white hair unless they're very old, they can't read minds, and they can't hear heartbeats. Alice, you are not human."

"Doctor…if I'm not human, then what am I?"

The Doctor sighed.

"I don't know, Alice. I really don't. But we're going to find out."

**888**

**A/N: **the lines at the start of this chapter are borrowed from _Brisingr _by Chris Paolini~


	4. Chapter 4

After that day, the Doctor started to travel again. He hopped through time and space, adventuring on distant planets and taking Alice with him as his companion. He had decided that it was time for her to see the universe; he tried to protect her from all the horrors that lay within it, but Alice was no mere child. While she stubbornly maintained that she was human, she had powers beyond any mere mortal. She could sense the thoughts and feelings of others, and she could hear the heartbeat of any living organism. Not only that, she could see the innermost desires of any person and capture them in drawings she called "heart pictures." She also possessed an understanding of the world that matched or even surpassed the Doctor's, and yet she'd seen barely a fraction of the universe. The Doctor was mystified. He had traveled the universe for hundreds of years and yet he'd never encountered anything like her.

As the years passed, the Doctor began to worry. He wasn't getting any closer to solving the mystery of Alice, and to make matters worse, she was starting to get recognized. People across the universe were beginning to talk about the man with the blue box and the strange, white-haired girl who seemed to carry wisdom and knowledge beyond her years. The Doctor didn't want rumors of Alice flying across the stars; it made him uneasy. Someone like Alice could easily be turned into a weapon or manipulated to serve a selfish being. In spite of himself, the Doctor had grown to care for Alice. For the first time, he began to question the very nature of his lifestyle and the effect it had on those he took with him. Though Alice was very alien, she was still a child, and the Doctor's nomadic jaunt through space was not fit for children. With Alice fast approaching what would be adulthood for humans, the Doctor wondered if he had made the right decision when he had given her a name and whisked her away through space.

**###**

"Alice?"

"Come in."

The Doctor pushed Alice's bedroom door open and wondered at his feeling of trepidation. He had kicked down countless doors before without a second thought, and had no problem parking his TARDIS in the middle of various girls' bedrooms, yet the thought of entering Alice's room made him nervous. She was a strange, solitary creature; her room was where she went for absolute privacy, and the Doctor knew not to violate that unless it was an emergency.

The Doctor tried not to gasp as he entered the room. Alice's walls were covered with her heart pictures. Some of her musings were tacked alongside them. The wall above her bed was nearly covered by a giant drawing of a star whale, scribbled in a rainbow of colors and spanning dozens of sheets of paper. Bits of paper and broken pencils were scattered across her floor.

Alice was sitting up in bed, book in hand.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. The Doctor sighed and scratched his head, unsure of where to begin.

"Alice...do you like traveling with me?"  
>"Of course! It's wonderful. There's so many places to go and cultures to learn about…I could do it forever."<p>

"I just…I don't know if it's right for you." The Doctor pulled up a chair from Alice's desk and sat down. "I mean, we don't know what you are…and people could use that. They could hurt you and manipulate you for their own ends." He stopped, realizing that he was confessing his fears to her. He was supposed to be the authority figure, and yet he was talking to her like an equal. She had the appearance of a child, but her presence and manner of speaking made him forget how young she was. This unnerved him, but he pushed it aside and continued speaking.

"Alice, this is a dangerous life…and I think it would be better for you if you stopped traveling with me. There are people I know, on Earth, who could keep you safe and help you find out who you are. You should stay with them."

"Doctor, I am safe."

"Alice…"

"I am. You keep me safe."

The Doctor sighed. _They all think I'm safe, _he thought bitterly. _They all want to travel with me forever and nothing I say can make them see that I'm not…I'm just not._

"I can try. I can try to keep all the aliens in the universe from tearing you apart but I can't keep you safe. Not from this box…not from myself."

Alice's eyes narrowed and the Doctor felt her gaze burning into him.

"You've done terrible things. You've destroyed races, taken lives…broken hearts. You change the course of every life you touch forever, and not always for the best. You are dangerous, but you're a good man, and I wouldn't feel as safe with anyone else. I _know, _Doctor. But I trust you with my life."

The Doctor looked down and rubbed his hands across his face.

"I don't want anything to happen to you," he said in a low voice. "Not because of me. I can't…"

"Doctor, I want to stay with you. I don't belong anywhere else."

At that moment, the Doctor looked up and caught sight of a picture on the table next to Alice's bed. It was a drawing of him, but it wasn't a heart picture. It was the crude artwork of a five-year-old; the Doctor stood on grass that was little more than a jagged green line, holding his sonic screwdriver and wearing a confident smile. Underneath in blue crayon, Alice had printed "Dad."

The Doctor stared in shock for a few moments and swallowed. It hurt so badly. He stood up.

"Alice," he said, trying to keep his voice steady, "You have until you turn twenty-one. Then I'm taking you to Earth."

"Of course," Alice said matter-of-factly. "But why twenty-one?"

"My—the people I know on Earth are a bit…hard-edged," the Doctor said carefully. "I want you be more mature before you stay with them." His eyes fell on the drawing of him, and he wondered if he was making the right choice.

"Doctor—"

"Just trust me." With that, he left her and went back to the TARDIS's front room.

The Doctor ran his hands over the TARDIS's controls. He felt the familiar knobs and switches under his fingers and tried to convince himself he was right. _The Torchwood team might not be the friendliest people, but they're safe, _he told himself. _That's all that matters. Jack will take care of her. He has to. _The Doctor closed his eyes and bowed his head as he rubbed a switch between his fingers.

_It's not going to happen to her._


	5. Chapter 5

It was the day before Alice's twenty-first birthday, and the Doctor was finishing a message to Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood. He was about to send the message into time and space when he heard footsteps behind him. He knew it was Alice, but something still jumped inside him as he thought for a split second of Rose.

"Alright?" he asked, shaking off his memories of Rose.

"Doctor…I…I feel something." The Doctor frowned and looked at her, unsure of how to respond.

"It's…Doctor, I'm scared. I've never been scared before."

"What, _never?"_ the Doctor asked. Many of his travels with Alice involved gruesome aliens and harrowing situations that would have been more than frightening to any of his human companions. Alice had been a small child during some of these encounters, so the idea that she'd never been scared before was extremely improbable.

"Never, Doctor. You always keep me safe."

The Doctor flinched a little. There it was again. _Safe. _

"Alice, I—" He stopped himself before he could finish. _I'm not safe, _he finished silently.

"I know what you think of yourself," Alice murmured. "You don't think you can protect me but you always _do. _I'm scared to leave you, Doctor," she finished. "And I'm scared that I might want to."

"Why does wanting to leave scare you?"

Alice absently touched a button on the TARDIS's console.

"There's a whole world out there, Doctor," she said, "Filled with people who live their whole lives based on emotion." She turned to face him. "I'm going to be twenty-one tomorrow. Think of how much the average human has experienced in twenty-one years of life. There's so much I want to see and do and _feel… _ It's so overwhelming and so exciting and that's what scares me because I know how much easier it would be to just stay here with you."

"That's why you have to do it," the Doctor said in a low voice. "Because it would be easier not to." When Alice gave him a look, he swallowed and continued. "Nothing that's worth doing comes without a price. That's what makes it worth doing. That's what makes life worth _living. _Just think of all the things you miss if you stayed with me all your life. Not the sights but the _interactions, _the _feelings. _There's so much…_humanity _cooped up on that little blue planet and you'll miss all of it if you don't go."

Alice bit her lip.

"I don't know what I'll do without you, Doctor. You…you're like…"

"Your father, I know." It came out more harshly than he intended. He looked furiously at his shoes for a few moments. "Sorry," he muttered. "I'm sorry."

"Doctor—!"

Alice threw herself into his arms and hid her face in his chest. The Doctor opened his mouth to make an exclamation of some sort but the words choked and died in the back of his throat. He held Alice tightly as all the people who had trusted him to always know the right answer, to always save the day, flashed through his mind. Ghosts he thought he had wished away long ago drifted to the surface of his thoughts; he squeezed his eyes shut and quickly attempted to push them back down underneath the pile of rubble that was his existence. With every beat of his hearts, he could feel them; every year of his life felt like an anvil that slammed through his consciousness and left him short of breath. At that moment, the Doctor felt every second of his nine hundred-plus years.

"You will be safe," he gasped. "I _promise, _Alice, you will always be safe."

"I don't want to go, Dad," she whimpered, her words muffled by his shirt. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

The absurdity of it all would have made him laugh had she not called him _Dad. _Instead, the Doctor squeezed Alice tighter.

"_Nothing _is going to happen to me," he growled with all the conviction he could muster. "I promise."

Alice was silent for along time. She stood there with her arms wrapped loosely around the Doctor's waist and her face still pressed against his chest. Then;

"I don't believe you."

The Doctor closed his eyes and gently kissed the top of her head. _You shouldn't, _he thought.

"I know."


	6. Chapter 6

Before the Doctor brought Alice to Earth, he took her Thor I, the planet where he found her all those years ago. He stood next to her and held her hand as she stared at the place where she came from. She looked at the ice through narrowed eyes for a few moments, then turned her back on the tundra and stalked back to the TARDIS. The Doctor glanced at the frozen forest before sighing and following her.

Alice didn't speak again until the Doctor parked the TARDIS inside what would be her new home.

"So this is it then," she said, fixing him with her alien blue stare. The Doctor didn't reply. He walked past her and pushed open the doors.

"Welcome home," he said softly. Alice looked at the ground and said nothing.

"Alice."

"Doctor."

"Earth is waiting for you."

"…I don't want to go." Alice's voice was angry. "Tell me, Doctor, what's the point of leaving me here? So you can make yourself feel better? So you can be free of the responsibility of my life? What can these people do for me that you can't?"

"They can keep you—"

"Stop. Just stop. I don't want to hear any more from you."

The Doctor stood stunned by the TARDIS doors. He knew Alice wasn't thrilled about his decision to leave her on Earth, but he didn't know it had upset her this much. Her scorn stung him in a way he hadn't expected.

"I don't want anything to happen to you," he said through clenched teeth. "This is for your own good."

"And who are you to decide that?"

"I'm a very old man who's seen and done a lot more than you have!" the Doctor exploded. "Do you know how many people I've put in danger just because I can't bear being alone? You want to know what happened to Rose, Alice? She's trapped in a parallel dimension, because of _me! _I will _not _let something like that happen to you. Not because of me…not ever. I'm doing this," he finished heavily, "Because I care about you and I couldn't stand it if you got hurt or killed because of me."

Alice stood rigidly, her jaw clenched. Her eyes were blazing, and the Doctor saw an argument forming. "I'm sorry, Alice," he said. "But you need to leave." Alice's anger was crumbling.

"Doctor, I want to know what I am."  
>"I know. You'll find it. These people can help you. They've dealt with no shortage of aliens."<p>

Alice stood silently for a few more moments; then she sighed and stepped lightly past the Doctor and out the TARDIS doors. The Doctor shut his eyes tightly and gave himself a second to calm down. When he heard a voice coming from outside that wasn't Alice's, he hurried out after her.

Despite her displeasure at being dropped off at an unknown location, Torchwood's interior shocked Alice. It somehow managed to be claustrophobic and huge at the same time, and its concrete floors and walls made it anything but welcoming. As Alice tried to take in the mess of wires and technology, some alien, some human, a voice called out to her. Alice turned towards the direction of the noise as the Doctor appeared at her shoulder.

"That's funny," the same voice said, "I don't remember calling for a doctor." The voice's owner was a man who was of similar height to the Doctor, but was broader in the shoulders and chest. He had brown hair and blue eyes and was dressed in clothes that seemed more than a little dated to Alice. The Doctor gave the man a smile that was only slightly strained.

"Good to see you, Jack. How's Torchwood?"

"Oh, y'know. Aliens wreaking havoc every time you blink. Same old same old. And you, Doctor?"

"Well. Not much has happened, really. It's just been…business as usual."

"I wouldn't say that." Jack cast a look at Alice. "It's not every day the Doctor asks me for a favor. In fact," he said, grinning widely, "It's usually the other way around."

"It's not a permanent thing exactly. If you could look after her for a while and help her find out more about herself when you get the chance…"

"Anything, Doctor. You can count on me."

Alice sensed that Jack would keep his word, if only because he respected the Doctor so much that he would obey him without question. The thought didn't make her feel any better. If the Torchwood people were as good as the Doctor claimed, why hadn't he passed her along to them the moment he found her?

"Well I suppose I'll be off now," the Doctor was saying. He clapped Jack on the shoulder. "Take good care of her," he said softly. Jack nodded. The Doctor turned to Alice, and Jack wandered off to give them some privacy.

"Wear this," the Doctor said quietly, pressing something into Alice's hand. "And if you ever need me, I'll know." Alice looked down at the object in her hand. It was a small silver key on a bit of brown string. "It's a TARDIS key," the Doctor explained. "I have one too. Just don't let it fall into the wrong hands because if a TARDIS key is taken, the TARDIS could be stolen just as easily."

"Doctor, why?" Alice asked. It was the only thing she could think to say that summed up all of her unanswered questions. "Why didn't you bring me here in the first place? Why did you keep me?"

"I don't know," the Doctor answered. His expression softened. "But I'm glad I did. Really."

Alice wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Thank you," she said. The Doctor rested his chin on the top of her head.

"You don't have much to thank me for."  
>"I have enough." Alice was silent for a moment. "Will you ever come back for me, Doctor?"<p>

"Oh, I hope I do," the Doctor said. "I really hope I do."

They disengaged and the Doctor looked for a long moment at the girl he had raised. He kissed her on the forehead and slipped inside his blue box before his hearts overcame his mind and he grabbed her hand and took her with him. Alice stood outside, clutching an ordinary-looking key, and watched as the man who had been like a father to her disappeared into time and space.


	7. Chapter 7

Captain Jack Harkness heard the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS's engines as the Doctor left the Hub. He turned on his heel and walked casually back to where the strange, white-haired girl was standing. Her spine was straight; her only movement was that of her hair as the breeze created by the vanishing TARDIS blew it back. Jack watched her for a moment. When she showed no signs of moving, he cleared his throat quietly. She turned and fixed him with a piercing blue stare. Jack could already tell that this would be one hell of an interesting day.

"So," he began. "I don't know if the Doctor told you, but I'm Captain Jack Harkness, and this," he gestured to the space around him, "Is Torchwood."

"What's Torchwood?" the girl asked dully. She was staring into space, clutching something tightly in her small hand. Jack knew she didn't care about him or Torchwood or what the organization was, but he answered her anyway.

"Sort of a secret service," he said. "We're beyond the government, the police…any organization you can think of, they have no control over us. Our job is to monitor alien activity on Earth. This town—Cardiff—is sitting right on top of a rift in time and space. Stuff from other time periods and planets has a tendency to fall through the rift, and when it does, we deal with it."

The girl nodded absently and looked at the object in her hand.

"Um, this is a little awkward, but the Doctor didn't tell me your name," Jack said to break the silence. She looked up at him, her expression guarded and weary.

"It's Alice," she said.

"Alice," Jack repeated, relieved that she was at least talking to him. "How long have you been with the Doctor?"

"For as long as I can remember," Alice said. She looked down. "He found me when I was a baby, and he raised me. This is the first time we've ever been apart." She met Jack's eyes, and her expression was almost pleading. Jack approached her and tentatively touched her shoulder.

"It's okay," he said when she flinched away from his hand. "Come on, sit down over here." He guided her to the couch that was shoved in a corner, out of the way of any potential foot traffic. As she sat down, he caught a glimpse of the object clutched in her hand.

"The Doctor gave you a TARDIS key," he said. Alice's eyes narrowed as she looked at him through a chunk of white hair that had fallen across her face.

"You're surprised."

"A little," Jack admitted. The Doctor had told him some of Alice's powers, so he knew lying was no use. "He doesn't really give those out to most people."

"I'm different," Alice murmured. "I'm practically his _daughter." _Her voice grew hard and cold.

"I know you're angry with him," Jack said calmly. "Believe me, I understand."

"Hardly," Alice snapped. "I don't suppose the only father you ever knew was a time-traveling alien who suddenly decided to dump you on a strange planet with some strange apes to ease his own conscience."

"No," Jack conceded, "But I did travel with the Doctor, once. And I'll tell you a secret." He leaned towards her conspiratorially, even though there was no one else in the room. "Because of him, _I can't die."_

His revelation surprised Alice at first. Then, as she read his emotions, she understood.

"You hate him sometimes," she said quietly. "Because he gave you this gift and then flew away in his blue box without so much as a goodbye. And now you only ever hear from him when you're in a situation you can't get out of…when you're desperate and he's the only one who can save you."

"Yes," Jack said softly. Alice glanced at him. He was staring at something she couldn't see, lost in some far away memory. Suddenly, he snapped back to the present, turning quickly to face her.

"So you're an alien," he said, standing up. "But the question is, what kind of alien."

"Yes," Alice said, standing as well. She tried to read his emotions again, and received a shock. It was as though he had completely shut down; she could detect no traces of anger or happiness or anything at all, really. He was like a dead man. Shaking off her discontent, Alice followed Jack to a bank of computers near the center of the Hub.

"Lucky for you," he was saying, "We have the biggest alien database on the planet. Since we don't know what you are, we'll have to search for aliens that share similar characteristics as you. White hair, blue eyes, mind and emotion reading…"

"I can hear heartbeats," Alice added. "And I can reproduce the desires of any creature on paper." Jack nodded and continued typing into one of the computers.

"Now we just enter what we're looking for aaaaand…we have aliens!"


	8. Chapter 8

Alice and Jack searched through the Torchwood database for hours. It was only when they saw the sunrise over CCTV that they stopped.

"We've searched through hundreds of species but nothing even remotely fits," Alice said despairingly.

"Don't worry," Jack said confidently. "There are still thousands of aliens to look through. We've barely scratched the surface."

Alice looked at Jack from her place on the couch.

"What if we never find it?" she asked dully. Jack leaned forward in his seat and fixed her with a determined stare.

"We will," he said. "I promise."

Alice stood up, appearing unconvinced.

"Is there a place where I can sleep?" she asked. "I need to do that too, you know."

"Of course," Jack said. "Just take my bed." Alice looked at him sharply.

"You sleep here?"

"Why shouldn't I? It's not like I get paid. Besides, someone's gotta be here to make sure nothing happens when everyone else is off living their lives."

"Are you sure it's no trouble?" Alice asked. "You have to sleep too."

"Don't worry," Jack reassured her. "The rest of my team'll be here soon. We'll figure out something more permanent later."

They had arrived in a room tucked away from the rest of the Hub. A bed was built into a hollow in the wall, with a small bathroom stuffed in the corner of the room. Jack pulled a white shirt out of the chest of drawers across from the bed and tossed it to Alice.

"You can sleep in that if you want," he said. "I'm assuming you don't have any other clothes besides what you're wearing?" Alice looked down at the pale blue dress she had arrived in.

"No," she said.

"Then we'll buy you some tomorrow, assuming nothing rift-related happens," Jack said. "Unless you'd rather contact the Doctor and ask him to send you some of your old clothes…?"

"No," Alice decided. "I'd rather not talk to him right now if it's all the same to you."  
>"Of course. I understand. You get settled, and come find me if you need anything."<p>

"Jack," Alice called. Jack paused at the door. "Your team…will I have to meet them?" Jack hesitated.

"Eventually. But don't worry about that now. Just rest up, and I'll probably be here when you wake." With that, he left the room, the door closing behind him with a snap.

Alice slowly surveyed her surroundings. The room was surprisingly neat; Alice had assumed that Jack's personal quarters would share the Hub's cluttered appearance. Checking to make sure no one was watching, Alice slipped out of her dress and pulled Jack's shirt over her head. After a moment's hesitation, she put the TARDIS key around her neck. Something about the atmosphere of the Hub unsettled her. It had none of the TARDIS's warmth. Still, she supposed it was something she'd have to get used to. _After all, _she thought as she climbed into Jack's bed and pulled the sheets over her, _It's not as if I'll be leaving any time soon._


	9. Chapter 9

**Still alive guys! I've been spending lots of time working on non-fanfiction projects but i think i'll be writing more of this in the near future? Hopefully. stay tuned c:**

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When Alice woke up, the Hub was as quiet as it had been when she arrived. As she sat up, the door opened and Jack entered the room. Alice jumped and pulled the sheets around her.

"I got you some more clothes," he said, ignoring her skittishness. "It's not much, but it should be enough. Come on, take a look." Cautiously, Alice got out of bed and took a plastic bag from Jack's outstretched hand. Inside were four dresses in varying shades of blue.

"They're perfect," Alice said in surprise. Jack grinned.

"The Doctor told me that blue was your favorite color," he explained, "And I figured you were the kind of girl who liked dresses."

"Jack," Alice gasped, "This is wonderful." She held up a strapless dress in a pure shade of deep blue with a white underskirt. Jack's smile softened.

"Try it on," he suggested. "I was only guessing with sizes."

Alice hesitated, then slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She emerged moments later; the dress fit her perfectly. It hugged her small torso despite the empire waist and ended just above her knees with some of the underskirt peeking out from under the blue fabric.

"It's beautiful, Jack," Alice breathed.

"Good. The others should fit too. They're all the same size." Alice looked at him suddenly, as if she was seeing him for the first time.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked. Jack shrugged.

"I promised the Doctor I'd take care of you," he said simply.

"Really. So if some other man appeared in your secret base and shoved an unknown alien at you, demanding that you look after it, you'd do the same?"

"Maybe not," Jack conceded with a laugh. "But the Doctor's no ordinary man. And not many aliens are as pretty as you are. Aw, come on, I was just joking," he amended as Alice frowned at him. "Hey," he said suddenly, "Come see the city with me."

"What—" Alice started, but Jack was already grabbing her hand and pulling her out of his room. He raced down to the center of the Hub, Alice hot on his heels.  
>"Now stand here," he said, positioning her on a platform near the central bank of computers. He pressed a button on one of the keyboards and hurried back to where Alice was standing.<p>

"And up we go," he said. The ground beneath their feet jolted and began to rise. Alice jumped and grabbed Jack's arm.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Showing you Cardiff," he replied. "It's okay. No one's gonna hurt us." Alice didn't reply. She stood uncomfortably next to Jack. Though he was nice enough, and seemed as energetic as the Doctor, she didn't trust him. The fact that she couldn't read his emotions unless he let his guard down bothered her. She had seen enough of the universe to know that people who put such effort into guarding their minds had a lot to hide.

As the lift came to a smooth stop, Alice gasped and staggered backwards.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked, his hand on her shoulder.

"So many people," Alice gasped. "So many feelings…"

"Come with me," Jack said, helping her up. "Try and block it out." Alice did as Jack told her, albeit with difficulty. She'd been to many cities that teemed with far more life than this one, but those cities had been alien. Human feelings were so raw and unguarded, and the sheer force of their combined mental weight left her breathless. Alice was so focused on keeping the rush of thoughts and emotions at bay that she didn't notice where they were going until they got there.

"So," Jack said. "What do you think?" They were on top of one of the taller buildings in their general area. Alice looked around her, finally having managed to block out the emotions of the city.

"In all honesty, it's quite ugly," she said softly.

"Compared to the sights you've seen, it probably is," Jack laughed. His expression grew serious. "Sometimes, this place makes me lose faith in humanity," he said quietly. "The things I've seen, Alice, in this town alone…! Sometimes I honestly don't know how it could get any worse than this."

The two sat in silence for a while, each lost in their thoughts.

"Why would the Doctor bring me here?" Alice said, half to herself. "If this place is so _horrible, _why would he leave me here?"

"Maybe he believed you'd be better off," Jack replied. "You've been with him a long time, longer than most. The way he saw it, it was probably only a matter of time before something bad happened to you. Maybe he thought it would be better if he left you with someone he trusted instead of continuing to put you in danger."

"Maybe," Alice said. She rubbed the teeth of the TARDIS key between her fingers. "We're all just fools, aren't we Jack?" she murmured. "Silly, insignificant fools, always chasing after his shadow."

"We may be fools, but I prefer to see us as the chosen fools," Jack said with a wry laugh. "After all, the Doctor doesn't just pick random strangers off the street to travel with him. I figure there must be something special about all of us that draws us to him, or him to us, whichever you prefer." Alice snorted.

"I suppose that's a better way to look at it. Still doesn't change anything, though."

"There's a life beyond the Doctor," Jack said quietly. "I know it doesn't seem like there is, but believe me, it's there. Trust me, I know."

"You had a life before him," Alice pointed out. "I didn't."

"Then for you, it'll be a little harder to find. But you'll get there. I know you will."

"Thank you, Jack," Alice said after a few minutes of silence had elapsed.

"For what?"

"For being kind to me."

"I promised the Doctor I'd take care of you," Jack said. "Being kind to you is the least I could do.

"And you've already done more than that. It can't be easy…Torchwood sounds like a full-time responsibility."

Jack's expression hardened.

"It consumes you, after a while. I always tell my team to hold on to the lives they have outside of it. The worst mistake they could make is to let Torchwood become the sole purpose of their existence."

"What about you, Jack? What's the sole purpose of _your _existence?" When he didn't answer, Alice tried to read his thoughts. They remained as impenetrable as ever, but his emotions were a different story. When Alice opened herself to them, she was hit with a wall of overwhelming bitterness and anger. Suddenly, Jack stood up.

"That's enough stargazing for one night," he said in a commanding voice. "Let's get back to the Hub so we can work out where you'll be sleeping." He strode off towards the staircase that lead off the roof, and Alice had to hurry to keep up with him. His sudden change of mood surprised her, but she didn't show it. The best way for her to learn how to fit in at Torchwood would be to imitate its leader. If Jack kept his thoughts and feelings under lock and key, she would too.


	10. Chapter 10

Alice woke to the sound of unfamiliar voices.

"Jack, not to be rude, but who the hell is _that, _and why is she on my operating table?"

"Is it one of your girlfriends? Because that's…well that's just strange."

"Is she even alive? Or am I to make her a cup of coffee as well?"

"Everybody calm down," Jack cut in. "Her name is Alice. A…a friend of mine left her in my care, so she's going to be staying at the Hub for a while.'

"What d'you mean? What friend?"

"Jack, what's going on here?"

Alice shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep. Reaching out with her mind, she tried to get a sense of the people in the Hub, who were undoubtedly Jack's Torchwood team.

There were four of them, two males and two females. They were all agitated by Alice's presence, save for one of the females, who had not said a word, and gave off an air of slight interest but polite removal. She knew that Alice was Jack's business, and she wasn't too ready to meddle with it, despite her curiosity. Alice took this bit of information and stored it away for later; it confirmed her suspicion that Jack was a man of secrets, possibly dangerous ones.

The person who caught her immediate attention was the first speaker. The flavor of his emotions drew her sense like a moth to a flame. They were buried below a devil-may-care exterior and several layers of cold steel; a tough shield that might put off an ordinary person, but not Alice. There, crunched in a hard, compact sphere in his gut was the bitterness and anguish brought on by not one, but two lost loves. He tried so very hard to hide it, but it made no difference to her. She could see it all; the rage, the loneliness, the self-loathing, like a roiling sea spread out before her. She found it delightful.

The second speaker, a female, was a regular firecracker. The openness with which she wore her emotions reminded Alice, with a slight twinge, of her Doctor. Confident and tough, she was, but perhaps to the point of fault. She used her rough-and-ready attitude as a shield in place of being vulnerable. Still, Alice could feel her loyalty and devotion to the team and to Jack.

It was hard for Alice to keep a straight face when she got to the second male. His infatuation with Jack was so overwhelming she was surprised that no one else in the room could feel it. His jealousy at the second speaker's suggestion that Alice was one of Jack's girlfriends spiked through all his other emotions like a great green spear, dripping with malcontent. Beyond that, he seemed a simple man, soft-spoken and submissive except for his fierce devotion to Jack. He seemed the underappreciated anchor of the team, who kept things shipshape in the Hub with his teammates never the wiser as to how much he contributed.

"Look, a very old friend of mine asked for my help and now it's my duty to protect her," Jack was saying. "She's very calm and she won't get in your way. That's all I'm going to say about this so get back to work. The Rift won't watch itself."

"Jack," Alice called without opening her eyes. She felt a swift shift in the emotions of the Torchwood team and she knew she had their undivided attention. "Aren't you going to tell them what I am?"

"What's that, what does she mean?" the firecracker girl said sharply.

"Bloody hell, Jack, don't tell me she _is _your girlfriend?" This from the second male, the soft one.

Jack's trepidation was visible. For an instant the black wall that guarded his heart vanished, and Alice could see him hesitating, like a man on the edge of a cliff, wondering whether to jump. Then, Jack sighed heavily, and the walls returned.

"She's not human." His voice rang out like a toneless bell, percussive, but with no music to it. "Alice is an alien." He hesitated again. "And…well, we don't know what kind."

"You don't know what kind." The emotions of the first male flickered deep within the well of his heart. Alice watched the flame climb. "Let me get this straight. Your _friend, _who we don't even know, turns up and asks you to look after this kid. But oh, that's not all. She's an _alien. _And it gets even better. She's an _unknown alien. _Jack, this is too rich, even for you."

"Owen—"

"She could be anything! She could destroy the planet and we'd have no warning, no way to fight back because _we don't know what she is!" _

Alice opened her eyes. It was time, she decided, to make an entrance.

"I'm not a child, Owen Harper, and certainly no threat to _you." _Once again, they all turned towards her, not just physically, but with their thoughts as well. Alice sat up and slid smoothly off the table.

"How d'you know my name." The way he said it made it sound not like a question, but like a challenge. Alice found him easily with her eyes: middling height, short brown hair, and calf-like brown eyes, but with a certain set to his jaw that made him look anything but innocent. The bitterness she had seen deep inside his heart showed in every inch of his face. He looked hardened, cynical, the kind of man who would take on a challenge purely to keep things interesting, and because he had nothing to loose.

"Because I know _you," _Alice said with a small smile as she ascended the steps that lead from the medical area to the rest of the Hub. "I know your _heart, _Owen Harper, right down to those secrets you guard so carefully, tucked away in the way down deep of your soul. I've seen your anger, anger at _yourself _because you weren't good enough, were you? You weren't good enough for—what was it? Diane? No, even your _love _wasn't enough to stop her from leaving you."

Alice paused a moment to drink in Owen's memories. Of all the emotions contained inside the beings of the universe, love was the one that fascinated her the most. It could be so warped, so twisted, but also so pure and beautiful. She swam through Owen's memories of Diane, a gorgeous girl from another time, and tasted the love Diane had unlocked in him, rushing like a warm, viscous river from a part of him that had lay dormant for many years. Alice grinned a feral grin as she came upon the first great love of Owen's life.

"But Diane, she was nothing compared your _wife,_ now, was she? Or should I say your _fiancé?_" Owen flinched backwards as Alice fixed him with her piercing blue stare. His shock was so visceral that it sent little electric thrills up her spine. "Such a shame. So _tragic. _You're always thinking, alone in your great empty house, your prison full of shadows, that you could have _saved _her. If you'd just been a little _stronger, _a little _better…_"

"Owen, what's she talking about?" The firecracker girl's voice was controlled, but suspicious, questioning. Her voice seemed to shake Owen out of his state of mute disbelief.

"You—" he spluttered, stumbling backwards on shaking legs—"You—how do you _know—?" _

Alice's grin widened. "Poor, sad, _lonely _Owen Harper. Don't be frightened. I'm not going to put a finger on _you." _

Owen's eyes were wide and terrified. His heel caught on the steps leading up to Jack's office and he sat down hard. He stayed there, trembling, and did not speak.

"Alice. That's enough."

Alice turned to face Jack. She could tell by the seriousness of his expression that he was not to be trifled with. She flashed him her most dazzling smile.

"Sorry, Jack, it's only that your kind are so _fun _to play with." Jack didn't budge.

"He would've expected better from you," he said quietly. Alice felt the blood drain from her face. Her mouth opened but no words came out. Images of the Doctor, her Doctor, rose unbidden from her subconscious. Overcome, she fled to Jack's room, slamming the door behind her and locking it tight.


	11. Chapter 11

Alice watched from where she sat, crouched in Jack's chair, as he calmed his team down. Owen was slumped on the steps with his back facing towards her. He held his head in his hands. The second female, the fiery one, was speaking intently with pointed hand gestures, but Alice could only hear the sound her voice made, and not the words it pronounced. Jack fended off her agitated words with a few choice ones of his own and a wave of his hand. Then, he sat beside Owen and put an arm around his shoulders. He said something in Owen's ear, something comforting, something reassuring, as the rest of the team looked on. The quiet male kept glancing nervously up at Alice's perch, while the first female looked at Owen, wide-eyed and wanting desperately to say something that would be of some use to him. When Alice had opened herself to the first female, she had caught a glimpse of her long-hidden infatuation with Owen. Now she had a chance to delve deeper into it, to experience the dips and rises in the emotional mountain range of a young female human, to dissect them and scrutinize the pieces to the most minute detail, but the thought made her nauseous.

Below her, Owen was rising to his feet. His expression was stoic, and as Jack dismissed him and the others to their work, Alice could see Owen shrugging off the team's inquiries as to his condition. Jack watched them for a moment; then, satisfied that everything was back to normal, he turned and headed up the stairs.

Alice's flight instinct kicked in. Like a frightened animal, she sprang nimbly from her squatting position in Jack's chair and raced through the door that lead to his personal quarters. She knew, in the back of her mind, in the highly evolved portion of her brain, that running was silly and useless, but she was compelled by a primal thing that lived deep inside her guts. Jack intimidated her the way a lion intimidates a man. She knew nothing of him other than that he was powerful and potentially deadly.

"Really, Alice," Jack said as he unlocked the door. "You're actually going to hide from me?" He crossed his office in a few long strides and stopped in the doorway of his room, calmly regarding Alice, who sat on his bed with her knees pulled tight against her chest. "Come on, that's not very mature." Alice didn't speak. She was ashamed of herself, but too prideful to apologize.

Jack moved from where he stood, leaning carelessly against the doorframe, to sit on the bed next to her. "Alice," he said quietly. "What was all that about?"

"I…" She swallowed. "Everything's happened so fast, Jack. I didn't know how to feel at first. But I woke up and I heard them—your team—and they made me so _angry. _I didn't even have to read their emotions to know what they thought of me. A nuisance. The dead bird on their doorstep that they step on when they go out to get the papers in the morning that stinks for the rest of the day. They were underestimating me. I had to prove them wrong."

"You're overreacting," Jack said calmly. "They don't know who you are, and they're naturally weary of strangers anyway."

"I've traveled the _universe_, Jack," Alice said. "I've seen its wonders and its terrors. I've seen sights their little human minds couldn't comprehend." She stood up, her agitation growing. "They don't know a thing about me—about what I could do."

"The Doctor—"

"Oh, the _Doctor," _Alice spat. Where there was once shame at her actions, there was now anger at him, at the man and all he stood for. "The Doctor, the bloody precious _Doctor, _with his wonderful box and his sonic screwdriver. Ancient, brilliant, madman Doctor with all his wisdom and his knowledge and his guilt. Twenty-one years I travel with him and then he leaves. Just leaves. And I'm with nothing but a key and the name he gave me."

For a moment, there was silence. Alice she sat down again, heavily, her hands clenched into fists upon her thighs. Jack swallowed.

"What I was _going _to say was that the Doctor would expect better of you. You've traveled with him longer than anyone. Was the example he set for you then not enough? He's the most powerful being in the universe but does he look down on other species, other people? No, he helps them. Saves them time and time again without expecting anything in return. I understand that you're angry at him— believe me, I do—and I understand that you're angry at me and my team as well. But what _you _need to understand is that we're your family now, Alice, whether you like it or not. If you want our respect, you'll have to earn it. Resorting to petty tricks to make us fear you is _not _the way to go."

Jack had risen from the bed and made to leave the room, but he paused in the doorway. "If there's one thing I know about humans, it's that fear provokes them. All you'll accomplish by using your powers to intimidate us is giving us the will to fight against you. You can take some time to cool down, but I expect you to apologize to Owen before the day is up." Alice began to protest but Jack cut her off. "You live in my house, you play by my rules. Get it done."

Alice stared mutinously at the ground as he left, letting the door close behind him. As far as she could tell, Jack's rules meant control. It meant keeping yourself clenched in a tight fist and wearing an iron mask that hid every flicker of emotion. It meant never revealing what lay inside to anyone.

Alice smiled to herself. So far, she was fitting in just fine. She'd told Jack the truth, to be sure; his team's ignorance and her anger at her situation had been what provoked her. But what she didn't tell him—what she didn't tell him was that she hadn't delved into Owen's feelings and used them to shake his very psyche because she was _angry. _No; she did it because she could. Because she wanted to. Because she _liked it._


	12. Chapter 12

"I'm sorry."

Owen Harper turned round at the sound of the voice. The girl—the alien girl—stood before him. He tensed internally, but on the outside he only took a breath and drew himself up and out of his hunched, brittle posture.

"Pardon?" he said stiffly, acting as if he hadn't heard.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. It was a tense apology—executed with the gentle force one would use to bring up a thick, slimy bit of food lodged at the back of their throat—but an apology nonetheless. Wearily, Owen examined her face and body language, searching for signs of the strange, sly thing that had confronted him earlier that day. He could find none. She stood awkwardly before him, shoulders hunched inward so that she seemed to have shrunk. She kept eye contact, though, with a carefully blank expression that betrayed nothing.

"Alright." Owen leaned on the console to his immediate right.

"Alright?" She raised her eyebrows in disbelief, as if to say, _surely it wouldn't be _that_ easy._

"I'm not saying I trust you, 'cause I don't," Owen said curtly. "But Jack seems to think you won't kill us in our sleep and I suppose I'll just have to live with that."

She was silent for a moment. Then, she cocked her head to one side and squinted at him.

"Was that a joke?"

Owen almost chuckled. "Not exactly, but I like your sense of humor."

She relaxed visibly. "I'm Alice. I mean, I suppose I should reintroduce myself." She held out a hand. "That's how you greet each other on this planet, isn't it? By shaking hands?"

"You're getting it," Owen said as he leaned forward and took her small hand in his. "Owen Harper, but you already knew that." Alice flushed, two spots of pink appearing high in her pale cheeks.

"I am sorry," she muttered, breaking eye contact for the first time since he'd turned round. He shrugged.

"Forget it."

Alice looked down and bit her lip. She could see inside him; she knew that she'd caused more damage than he'd ever admit. She thought of the Doctor and felt instantly ashamed, but deep down within her gut, something whispered to her, told her that she didn't care about these humans and their fragile psyches. She shook herself, remembering what Jack had said. The humans were her family now, no matter how easy it was to break them. The Doctor wasn't going to come back, wasn't going to materialize in the middle of the Hub, stick his head out the TARDIS doors and announce with a grin that he'd only been having a laugh, that he wasn't _really _going to leave her on Earth with a bunch of strangers. There was a bitter taste in Alice's mouth, but she swallowed it. It was time to get to know her knew family, starting with Owen Harper.

"So, what do you actually _do _here?" Alice asked. Owen, who had dazed off into a reverie of his own, jumped and made a face that could almost qualify as a strained smile.

"I'm assuming Jack told you about the Rift, right?" Alice nodded. "Well, we monitor it from the Hub. If there's even so much as a ripple—" he tapped a screen in front of him—"We'll know."

"And if there is a…ripple?"

"We investigate. If there's something alien, something out of place, we deal with it."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "Deal with it?"  
>"If it's an object, we take it back here and lock it away. If it's something sentient…we're nonviolent if we can be."<p>

"And if you can't?"

Owen turned away from the monitor to face her. "Then we kill them."

If Alice had a reaction she didn't show it. She knew Owen probably expected something out of her, a gasp or an expression of shock or anger. How would an alien feel about living under an organization that had murdered countless aliens? In truth, what Owen knew was barely scraping the surface. It was all so twisted, Alice thought, so ironic. She was alone on a planet full of people that lived in ignorance and fear of what lurked beyond their atmosphere, that would kill an alien as soon as look at one. Not only that, but she had been raised by a man who was the savior of countless species, who valued life above all else and tried to maintain peaceful coexistence between all creatures when possible. She knew that her Doctor wasn't exactly innocent; he had his fair share of blood on his hands. But he was still her Doctor, that shiny, bouncy man who roamed through all the colorful corners of the universe in his box, bluer than the bluest ocean. Compared to him, Torchwood would always be darker.

"So you kill aliens," Alice said briskly.

"But only if they're violent," Owen said hastily. "Only if they pose a real threat to the earth."

"And what if start presenting a 'real threat to the earth'?" She fixed him with her most piercing stare. "Would you kill me?"

Owen looked at her sharply. She was testing him and he knew it. "I don't know," he said tightly. "You're Jack's problem. Ask him."

"I'm nobody's _problem," _Alice said mildly. "At least not yet." Owen gave her a look and she grinned at him. "Only joking." When he continued to look suspicious, she let out a little laugh. "Don't be thick, Owen. I'm here to find out who I am. I'd hardly accomplish anything by killing you all." She used his first name because she knew it would unnerve him, and it did.

"You're very strange, even for an alien," Owen said, shaking off the chills that ran up and down his spine whenever she looked at him. "D'you know that?" Alice grinned widely and opened her mouth to answer, but she never got the chance. At that moment, a loud siren went off and one of the monitors began to flash red. Alice had to dodge smartly out of the way to avoid getting trampled as the rest of the team rushed to the center of the Hub. A door opened and closed as Jack emerged from his office, calling, "Toshiko, what've we got?"

Toshiko, who turned out to be the soft-spoken female, was tapping at the flashing monitor. "Rift activity," she said, "but only a slight tremor. It doesn't look big enough to let anything through."

"Keep an eye on it in case it grows, will you? Ianto, make sure you watch the papers for anything strange." The soft-spoken man—Ianto—nodded. "You can go home for the night. Gwen, Owen, you too. And Gwen, you make sure to let us know if the police call you with anything."

"I won't forget, Jack," Gwen said firmly. Alice watched carefully as she left the Hub. The firecracker. Alice would have to get to know her.

"Tosh, if you could stay for just a few more moments to watch the Rift, that would be excellent," Jack said. "I'll be in my office, just yell if you need me." Tosh nodded dutifully and peered at her monitor. Ianto had left the Hub so quietly it was as if he'd never been there. Alice found Owen by the door, putting on his coat. He glanced at her, the expression on his face unreadable, before ducking out the door. Alice stood uncertainly for a few moments, shifting awkwardly, and then she made for Tosh.

"What happens if it gets bigger?" Alice asked. Tosh jumped and whirled round to look at her.

"If—if the Rift activates any more than this, something could fall through…or get sucked in."

Alice shook her head in disbelief. "How can an entire city of people live on a rift in time and space and not know it?"

Tosh shrugged. "We're too preoccupied with ourselves, I guess. That, and, I suppose we don't want to acknowledge reality. Strange things occur, and we'd rather them be explained away than know the truth. Though I think the rest of humanity have become more open to the idea of other life in the universe. I mean, they've had to. What with Christmas Day and Big Ben and the Battle of Canary Warf."

"What?"

"Oh, I forgot, you're not from here. There were some encounters—invasions, I should say. Spacecraft coming down on Christmas Day and crashing into one of our national monuments just a year earlier. It got a great deal of people to believe in aliens and intelligent life outside of Earth."

"What about the—the Battle of Canary Warf?"

"_That _was a full on invasion. Two separate species, fighting each other and killing anyone that got in their way. Torchwood was involved—it was all before my time here, though."

"Oh." Alice fell silent, wondering what drew so many aliens to such an insignificant planet. Then, she looked at the monitor on which the Rift slumbered, mapped out across the city in a softly pulsing grid. It was inactive now, but if it were to waken, anything could pull its way out of the universe and on to planet Earth. The rubbish of the stars, spat up into a world of ignorance.

"Toshiko!" Jack called, poking his head out of his office. "It's been long enough. You can go home now."

"Thank you, Jack. Goodnight." Tosh stopped to gather her things, but as she straightened up and turned to leave, she hesitated. She turned round. "Goodnight, Alice."

Caught off guard by Tosh's acknowledgement, it took Alice a moment to find her words. "Goodnight, Tosh," she stuttered after a second's pause. Tosh smiled a little and walked down and around from the center of the Hub and out the door. Alice stood there for a moment, staring at the screens that surrounded her. She had an itch inside her, born from a lifetime of travel with the Doctor; she yearned to know what lay beyond the Rift, through the stormy vortex of time and space.

"Alice?" Alice jumped and shook herself out of her trance.

"Yes, Jack?"

"I was looking through storage and I found a futon that you could sleep on…it's not much but it beats the surgical table."

Alice turned and ascended the stairs to Jack's office. In his room, a small mattress lay adjacent to the alcove where his bed was. Jack came out of the bathroom, drying his hands on a towel. "You can go to sleep if you want. I just have some work to do." Alice nodded and yawned widely. "Hey," Jack laughed, "We do that, too."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "I know. So does the Doctor."

"I wouldn't know," Jack said with a grin. "I've never slept in the same place as him. Not that I haven't tried," he added impishly. Alice gave him a look. "Alright, alright, I'm leaving." He backed out the door, still grinning, and closed it with a click. Alice rubbed her eyes, and yawned again. She was exhausted, and her mind was full of the day's occurrences. She lay down on the mattress and pulled the sheet over her; closing her eyes, she slipped into the trancelike state that preceeded her sleeping, where she could meditate over all that she had learned. Foremost in her thoughts were Torchwood's purpose and the nature of its employees. How did they fit in to her own desires, her own mission? And, more importantly, how could she live up to the Doctor's ethos, and resist the urge to pick her human companions apart from within? Or, a small voice whispered as she drifted off, would she abandon the morals of the man who had abandoned her, and manipulate the humans to her heart's content? Only time could tell.


	13. Chapter 13

Jack was just finishing with the evening's paperwork and preparing to relax with a glass of whiskey when the phone rang. Frowning, he picked it up and put it to his ear. On the other end, a British-accented voice said, "Bananas."

For a moment, Jack sat motionless, the phone frozen against the side of his head. Then, he leapt from his chair and raced out of his office, the phone still clutched in his hand. Taking the stairs three at a time, he sprinted to the bank of computers in the center of the hub. Grabbing the nearest monitor and pulling it towards him, he hastily typed "bananas" with clumsy fingers. At first, nothing happened. Then, the image of the Rift on the monitor flickered and vanish. Another image replaced it, this time of a man with glasses and messy brown hair peering out at the Hub.

"Doctor," Jack said with a grin.

"Ah, good, this thing still works. Hello, Jack!" The Doctor took off his glasses and stowed them in the inside pocket of his jacket. "I was just cleaning out the old transmissions system and thought I'd take it on a test run. How've you been?"

"Come on, Doctor, you and I both know that's a lie," Jack smiled. "You're calling about Alice, aren't you?"

The Doctor's smile faltered, then faded. He swallowed and passed a hand across his face.

"Yes," he said. "How is she?"

Jack hesitated. He knew he should tell the Doctor the truth—the whole truth—about Alice's anger and her outburst that day. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't add to the weight on the Doctor's hearts, even though he knew it was the right thing to do. So he forced a smile and said, "She's settling in just fine."

The Doctor was not convinced.

"Now, Jack…"

"No, _really, _Doctor," Jack cut him off. "She's upset still, but those things take time. Give her a week and she'll be alright."

"Sorry." The Doctor looked down at his hands. "You must think I worry too much. I suppose I probably do."

"Of course you do," Jack soothed. "It's perfectly natural. It's the first time she's been away from home."

Awkward silence fell between them as both men realized the implications of Jack's words. The Doctor looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. Jack swallowed and dropped his gaze, embarrassed. His implication that Alice was akin to the Doctor's daughter, while unintentional, had clearly dredged up painful memories for the other man. Jack didn't know if the Doctor had ever had children, and he knew that now wasn't the time to ask. He cleared his throat.

The Doctor's attention snapped back to Jack.

"Sorry," he said, trying to gloss over the awkward moment. "So, have you found out anything about her?"

Jack shook his head.

"Nothing yet. I've spent hours searching the databases, and I've found some leads, but some key part is always wrong. There's hundreds of thousands of species of aliens, though. I've barely scratched the surface. What about you, Doctor? Have you found anything?"  
>"I haven't had any luck either," the Doctor said, making a face. "But…there is something. It's nothing concrete, mind you, more like a feeling. I don't know what it is exactly, but…something about her doesn't <em>feel <em>right. It never has. From the moment I found her, something's always been sort of…_off. _I don't know how to explain it, but I know that I don't like it." He looked Jack in the eyes. "The sooner we find out what she is, the better."

"Agreed," Jack said. "The Rift's been pretty quiet the last few weeks. I should be able to continue the search tomorrow. Don't worry, Doctor," he added. "I won't let you down."

"Good," the Doctor said absently. He was looking off into the distance, reflexively rubbing his stubbly cheek. Jack could tell he was preoccupied, whether it be with Alice or something else. "I'll check back in a few weeks, shall I? Just to make sure all's well." He turned to look at Jack once more. "Call me if you find something….or if anything…happens. You know the number."

"Of course."

"Well, goodbye, Jack, and good luck."  
>"Until next time, Doctor." The Doctor's face vanished, leaving the monitor to display an image of the Rift once more. Jack sighed. He would have to redouble the search tomorrow. He could probably spare Gwen and Owen to help him out. Maybe he'd put the whole team on it. Either way, it would have to be done sooner rather than later.<p>

Jack stretched and yawned widely. It had been a long day. He turned his back on the computer bank and headed up the stairs, with sleep the only thing on his mind. Behind him, one of the monitors flashed once, briefly, red.


	14. Chapter 14

"Tosh," Owen called over his shoulder. Tosh looked up from her work.

"Yes?"

"What do you make of this?" Owen tapped the monitor he was staring at with a finger. Tosh walked over to him and peered at the screen over his shoulder.

"Oh my god. What on earth is that?"

The monitor showed a map of the Rift hotspots in the area around Cardiff, and they were going mad. For a few brief seconds, each marker would flash red before reverting to its inactive white color. They did this patternlessley, flickering on and off like strobe lights at a concert. Tosh and Owen stared at the monitor in shock. They hadn't seen anything like it.

Tosh was turning her head to call Jack when all activity on the monitor ceased. The flashing red blips extinguished without reason or warning. Tosh and Owen exchanged perplexed looks.

"Jack," Tosh called shakily. "Could you come here for a moment?"

Jack emerged from his office.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"It just went mad," Owen explained when Jack joined them at the console. "Every hot spot on the map flashing on and off at once. And then it just…stopped."

Jack frowned.

"What could have caused it? Tosh?"

Tosh shook her head. "I don't know. I've never seen anything like it, either."

"Well was there a pattern to it? Some sort of continuity? _Anything?"_

"No. No pattern. Nothing."

Jack sighed. He had a bad feeling.

"Owen, call Gwen. Ask her if she's received any calls from the police, of if she's noticed anything strange. I'll call Ianto. I don't know what's happening here, but it can't be anything good. Tosh, start checking recent news and police reports from the areas near rift hot spots. CCTV images too. Look for anything out-of-the-ordinary." Owen and Tosh nodded, and hurried to carry out their appointed tasks. Within moments, Gwen and Ianto had arrived, and the four of them were combing through news and police reports, hunting for a glimpse of the supernatural.

Alice wandered out of Jack's office several hours later. She wore a sky blue dress and a frown.

"What's going on here?" she asked, directing her question at Owen. He looked up from his monitor just in time to see her approach, intending to make a sarcastic remark about aliens being even lazier than humans that died in his throat once he took her in. She was stunning. He supposed he hadn't noticed it before because she'd been too busy using his memories as a form of private torture. Shaking his head in irritation, he turned quickly back to the computers.

"Rift activity," he said shortly. "Something we've never seen before. Jack's got us on the hunt for spillover."

"What do you mean '_something you've never seen before'_?" Alice asked.

"He means that," Ianto said as the monitors lit up again.

Owen sighed. "Jack," he called over his shoulder, "It's happening again!"

"Same as before?" Jack emerged on the balcony.

"Same as before," Owen confirmed grimly. "Aaand it's stopped."

"Keep looking," Jack said as he turned back towards the office door. "Let me know if anything else happens."

"Cheers," Owen muttered.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Alice asked.

"Yeah," Owen said without looking at her. "Call us a pizza."

**###**

Long after the pizza had been delievered and consumed, the team was still at work—or at least Owen was. The Rift had continued to activate sporadically, always in the same manner, but no reports of strange happenings in Cardiff or any of the surrounding areas had surfaced. Admitting defeat for the night, Jack had sent Tosh and Gwen home, leaving Ianto to man the front desk while Owen watched the local news and drank cold coffee. Alice was asleep on the couch. Every now and then, Owen twisted around to look at her; he knew he was being stupid, paranoid, but she made him uneasy even when she was sleeping.

He forced himself to turn his attention back to the news. Nothing was happening. The announcer droned on about the price of petrol and something the Prime Minister had done that had made the people angry. The people were always angry. It was what Owen hated about politics—nothing ever got _done _because everyone was too stupid to put aside their moral standards and work with each other instead of against each other.

"One thing I've found out about humans is that the qualities they hate the most in others are the qualities that they themselves embody."

Owen jumped and slopped some of his coffee on his shirt. He turned round. Alice's eyes were open, but she hadn't moved from where she lay. He wanted to look away from her, but the unnatural brightness of her eyes held him in place.

"Please stop," Owen said through gritted teeth. Alice ignored him and sat up.

"Something's coming," she murmured. Her voice had an eerie quality to it, like it came from someplace else, someplace far away.

"What?"

She stood. Her gaze was fixed straight ahead, on something he could not see.

"Something's coming," she repeated, in the same unnatural tone. "A storm is emerging from the void."

At that moment, one of the monitors began to flash. Owen watched it for a few moments. When the activity didn't cease, he called for Jack. When he emerged from the office a few seconds later, Owen relaxed. He didn't think he could have gone another moment alone with Alice's eyes fixed on him like that.

"Consistent Rift activity," Owen said as Jack approached. "It's just a few miles out from here. D'you want me to go check it out?"

"Good idea," Jack replied. "Maybe it'll shed some light on what happened earlier today."

Owen was halfway out the door when Jack called his name.

"Owen wait. Take Alice with you."

He suppressed a groan. _That _was the last thing he wanted.

"And why do I have to do that exactly?"

"She hasn't really left the Hub since she got here. We can't keep her cooped up like this, and she can't exactly go out on her own. This is a perfect opportunity for her to get some fresh air and a look at her surroundings."

"Fine," Owen sighed. He gestured at Alice without looking at her. "Let's go."


	15. Chapter 15

Owen and Alice rode out to the Rift point in silence. Owen didn't bother trying to make conversation, and for once Alice didn't seem to keen either. She had nearly collapsed on the way to the SUV, and Owen, unprepared for how to deal with her strange abilities, had to half-drag her across the lot and lift her unceremoniously into the passenger seat. She had explained what had happened in a clipped manner after she recovered, and fell silent after that. Now, she sat with her head against the window, staring blankly outside as the city blurred into dusky countryside.

Owen tightened his grip on the steering wheel. The plastic creaked under the force of his fingers. He kept sneaking glances at Alice out of the corner of his eye; she remained unchanged each time he looked, but his paranoia turned it into a compulsion. He forced himself to keep his eyes on the road.

"Where are we going?" She sounded listless, uninterested, as if she was only speaking to break the silence. Owen swallowed.

"To the epicenter. The origin point." Alice didn't say anything, so he kept talking. "The Rift is like a crack in space and time, but it's not just one big line. Most of it is below us, if you will, just beyond our dimension. It's only in certain spots that the crack is wide enough that things can bleed through. All those flashing dots on the computer at the Hub are the relative locations of those spots. They've all been programmed into the GPS so all I have to do is step on the gas, really."

He could feel Alice's eyes on him before he could think to glance over at her.

"Really."

Owen flushed. When was the last time he'd rambled like an idiot out of nerves? Not since primary school, probably. Not since when he first met—

"Don't think about it."

"Uh—what—?"

"You always seem to insist on dwelling upon things that are painful to you. Stop."

"Yes, and _you _always seem to insist on looking into my head and reading my innermost thoughts. So don't." He added, "They're private."

Alice snorted. "I don't care about your privacy. I spent my entire life living alone with a madman in a blue police box. And anyway, privacy is an illusion created by your race to comfort itself. You're never truly alone when you're living on a planet with multi-trillions of people in a universe filled with innumerable other beings. You of all people should know that. What's important here is that you're being an idiot, and I can't stand idiots. So stop it."

Owen realized that the turning was almost upon him, and jerked the steering wheel hard to the right. The tires screeched against the pavement but he refused to let up, his mouth pressed in a tight line. Here, the road vanished and became little more than a dusty line through the grass. It was incredibly easy to miss if one did not know where it was. Owen sped along the path and through a brief, sparsely wooded area, and skidded the car roughly to a halt when the woods parted. Jack would have something to say about his careless treatment of the van, something about how awkward it was to find spare parts for the thing, but he didn't care. He hurled himself out of the vehicle and slammed the door behind him. He stopped and stared Alice down when she rounded the front of the car to meet him.

"You," he spat, "Don't know anything." With that, he turned away and stalked across the clearing and up the gentle incline that formed the beginning of a steep hill. He felt, rather than heard, the sound of Alice's soft feet as she padded up behind him. Owen realized that he didn't know if she was wearing shoes. He pushed away the tug of guilt in his gut. She didn't say anything. He tried to ignore her. They climbed.

As the hill got steeper, the grass began to thin and the ground turned to gravel and dirt beneath their feet. Owen wasn't sure if the reason why he couldn't hear Alice's footsteps behind him was because she had fallen behind or he had stopped listening. The former was disproven when he heard her gasp sharply. He turned.

"Alright?"

"Fine," she said tightly. He looked down at her feet—no shoes. He sighed, his anger abated. _I could've—should've just left her in the car._

"Come on. I'll carry you the rest of the way."

"No." She shook her head adamantly. "Absolutely not."

"Don't be stupid," Owen said impatiently. "It's nothing but rocks from here on out and I won't have you slicing your feet up because you're too stubborn to let me help you." He turned round and crouched in front of her. "Now get on."

Alice approached him tentatively and positioned her body across his back. "If you want to stay on, you'd better hold on," he said tightly. He could sense her discomfort as she wrapped her arms around his neck—in fact, the way in which she touched him bordered on outright revulsion. Owen gritted his teeth, wrapped his arms securely around her legs, and hoisted her up as he stood. Her hands dug into his collarbones with a sudden fierceness as she reacted to the unexpected jolt. Owen bit the inside of his cheek but didn't say anything, and their trek up the hill resumed.

Their destination was a shelf located high up on the hill and surrounded by jagged rocks that spiked dangerously out of the ground. There was a spot further down the incline where the ground leveled out briefly and the trail curved to the right and began to wind up and around to the summit; this location provided them with a clear view of the shelf. Neither of them could have expected the sight that greeted them when they reached it.

A single bolt of lightning lanced repeatedly from the shelf to meet the clouds. As it sizzled through the air, it illuminated the sky and the landscape around it with a violet flash. There was barely a second's pause between each strike in which to taste the ozone and recover from the burning light before a new shaft forked up from the earth and rent the sky in two.

Shocked, Owen straightened up without thinking about it and felt Alice slither off his back and on to the ground. He stared up at the sky, openmouthed, until Alice stepped within his field of vision. He turned to look at her, and his heart jumped into his mouth. Her eyes shone. Not in the metaphorical sense; they were literally giving off their own light, a vivid electric blue that pressed hot fingers into his eye sockets and left an aching impression dancing in spots of white on his retinas. Not even when she broke into his mind had Alice looked so alien. Her skin seemed to crackle with an unseen energy, drawn from a void in the universe that was somehow beyond him. Everything about her was bright.

"Take this as a warning, Owen Harper." Her voice was somehow deeper, more grating, as if an ancient entity leftover from the beginning of Time itself was speaking through her and adding its unfathomable weight to her words. "A storm is coming. A storm from beyond the seas of Time, greater in its might than anything you have faced before. The collision of past and future, of hatred and hope, will rip this world apart, and you are looking at the epicenter. Be warned: _the Doctor's daughter will destroy the universe." _


End file.
